It's on. Sony's long-awaited PSP has hit the market with a nice lineup of …

Introduction

I remember when the original PlayStation launched. I waited in line at the local electronics store with about a dozen other people to get one of the launch units, and I remember my friends making fun of me. Sony knows nothing about videogames, they all said. You can't make a console unless you're Sega or Nintendo, they said. I liked what the Playstation brought to the table, I got one, and the rest is history. Sony went on to bring gaming to the mass market with the PlayStation, and the PlayStation 2 has almost completely defined its generation of gaming. The lessons I learned from this are twofold.

I am much smarter than my friends, and,

Never underestimate Sony when they are hungry and want to take over a market.

This is why the portable world has been in such a state of turmoil since the release of the Nintendo DS. I remember the eruption that happened when the DS review ran, and while it was slightly bothersome to deal with the fanboy reaction on both sides of the fence the thing that brought a smile to my face was the fact we were looking at the beginning of an actual portable console war.

It is often said that when competition begins, the primary winner is the consumer, and Nintendo has ruled portable gaming unopposed for too long. While I've enjoyed every Game Boy product and I love my DS, there is no doubt that they aren't pushing any real technological barriers with their systems. They lay back and play it safe with rehashed software and underpowered systems. Why? Because they can. No one is trying to eat their lunch. On March 24, 2005 that changed, in a big way.

So there it is. Is Sony going to be able to topple Nintendo? Are they even going after the same consumer? There's a lot of interesting things going on here, and the PSP is one of the most novel devices I've seen in a long time, gaming or otherwise. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Bend over kids, it's a VALUE PACK!

The first thing you may notice if you decide to brave the launch batch of systems is the fact that everyone is selling them for $250. So it's a $250 system, right? Kind of. Sony is losing money on each PSP sold, so instead of taking the heavy losses they suffered with the PS2 launch they've decided to try to recoup some of that money by bundling the system with a bunch of stuff that costs them next to nothing and ratchet up the price by $50. Face it: the early adopters are going to buy it anyway, so Sony has nothing to lose. Irritating? Yes. Smart business? Definitely. It just sucks to get jacked for things you may not want or need.

Let's see what this "value pack" gets you. You get the unit, great. You get a set of white (just like the iPod) headphones. Okay, they're about as good as any set of bundled headphones. Meaning they're not much better than junk. You also get a sampler disc with video of other games and some of the worst music I've ever heard in my entire life. You get a soft case, which would be nice if it didn't seem to want to rub the screen completely away (I can thank this case for my first scratch. I have no clue how a soft case can scratch a system, but there you go. Value.) You also get a cleaning cloth, and a Universal Media Disk (UMD) copy of Spiderman 2 in a cardboard sleeve. Spiderman 2 is sans special features of course, due to the lower size of UMDs vs. DVDs. Sony also lists the battery pack and the AC charger as accessories you're lucky to get with your system. Thanks Sony.

You also get a 32MB memory stick, which is actually nice. Not big enough for video or MP3s, but at least you can save your games from the get go.

All told, it probably costs Sony about $10 to put that value pack together, and then they gouge us with it. When the value pack is dumped expect the system to be $200 flat, but right now you have no choice. If you want a PSP, you get a value pack ? its Sony's own little forced bundle.

I'm not happy about it, but with hardware prices going up and up for the manufacturers and consumers wanting more features, I expect this sort of thing to become more and more common. I just wish Sony gave me a choice for my bundle. I'd much rather give everything back for a bigger memory card, or have my choice of movies.